We're Number Two

Princeton may cost $49,055 a year, but it's also the second best value for private universities in the country, according to Kiplinger's. The business magazine has ranked the best values for public, private and liberal arts institutions for 2009-10.

The magazine has weighted the quality of the institution as two-thirds of the ranking and the affordability of the institution for one-third of the ranking. Kiplinger's does not share the formula for its rankings, but it notes that it uses admission rate, students per faculty, graduation rate, total cost, cost after need-based aid, aid from grants, cost after non-need-based aid for students with no demonstrated need, percentage of students who receive aid without demonstrated need, average debt at graduation based on education loans and the percentage of 2008-09 freshmen who scored over a 600 on the verbal and math sections of the SAT or above a 24 on the ACT. It uses their academic-quality scores and average debt at graduation as tiebreakers.

The California Institute of Technology was ranked first, Yale was ranked third, Rice was ranked fourth, and Harvard was fifth.